Geography of Papua New Guinea

The geography of Papua New Guinea describes the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, the islands of New Ireland, New Britain and Bougainville, and smaller nearby islands. Together these make up the nation of Papua New Guinea in tropical Oceania, located at approximately coord|6|00|S|147|00|E|type:country at the western edge of the Pacific Ocean.

Papua New Guinea is largely mountainous, and much of it is covered with tropical rainforest. The Central Range of mountains runs the length of New Guinea, and the highest areas receive snowfall - a rarity in the tropics. Within Papua New Guinea Mount Wilhelm is the highest peak, at 4,509 m. There are several major rivers, notably the Sepik River (1,126 km long), which winds through lowland swamp plains to the north coast, and the Fly River (1,050 km long), which flows through one of the largest swamplands in the world to the south coast.

Papua New Guinea has one land border - that which divides New Guinea island. Across the 820 km border, the western half of New Guinea is officially known as Papua province, governed by Indonesia. There are maritime borders with Australia to the south and Solomon Islands to the south-east.

Physical geography

Area:
"the island of Papua New Guinea have a total area of:"462,840 km²
"the land space area is of:"452,860 km²
"and the water space area is of:"9,980 km²

coastline:5,152 km

"Northernmost Point:"
Mussau Island (1°23' S)
"Southernmost Point":
Hemenahei Island (11°29' S)
"Easternmost Point":
Olava, Bougainville (155°57' E)
"Westernmost Point":
Mabudawan (140°54' E)

Natural hazards:Papua New Guinea has quite a few volcanoes, as it is situated along the Pacific's "Ring of Fire". Volcanic eruptions are not rare, and is prone to earthquakes, and tsunamis because of this. The volcanic disturbance can often cause severe earthquakes, which in turn can also cause tsunamis. PNG is also prone to landslides, often caused by the deforestation in major forests. The mountainous regions of PNG are the areas most susceptible to landslides causing any damage.

Climate

Tropical; northwest monsoon (December to March), southeast monsoon (May to October); slight seasonal temperature variation

Human geography

Maritime claims:measured from claimed archipelagic baselines
"continental shelf:"200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
"exclusive fishing zone:"200 nautical miles (370 km)
"territorial sea:"12 nautical miles (22 km)

Land use

Natural resources:
gold, copper, silver, natural gas, timber, oil, fisheries

Land use:
*arable land: 0.49%
*permanent crops: 1.4%
*other (forests, swamplands, etc): 98.11% (2005 estimate)

Environmental issues

The Rain forest is subject to deforestation as a result of growing commercial demand for tropical timber; forest clearance, especially in coastal areas, for plantations; pollution from mining projects. If the trend continues, more than half the forest that existed when PNG became independent from Australia in 1975 will be gone by 2021 [University of Papua New Guinea [http://gis.mortonblacketer.com.au/upngis/Downloads/State%20of%20Forests%20of%20PNG.pdf The State of the Forests in Papua New Guinea] ] .

Environment - international agreements

party to

:Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands

igned, but not ratified

:Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol

References

*

ee also

* Papua New Guinea (country)
* Australia-New Guinea (continent)